ALLEGAN COUNTY, MI – Terry Burns, the former Saugatuck Township supervisor and Allegan County commissioner, has been charged with embezzlement after he allegedly took money from a trust account that belongs to a long-time friend, state police said Thursday, Feb. 27.

Burns earlier told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press that he “borrowed” thousands of dollars, but said he returned the money.

State police said Burns, a substance-abuse counselor in Holland, is charged with embezzling $20,000 or more from a vulnerable adult. The charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and $15,000 in fines.

Burns was a Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives but withdrew in late November. He said at the time that the allegations did not lead to his withdrawal. Rather, he said, it was the death of his daughter in a traffic crash in August that led him to end his candidacy.

Court records showed that Burns, a Saugatuck resident, was guardian for Joe Migas, a long-time friend who suffers from dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

Checks on Migas’ account totaling nearly $11,000 were given to a political consultant. Burns told MLive and The Press that was a mistake.

“One thing that I want to tell everyone is that I borrowed a significant amount of money from the guardianship account which was under my control!” he wrote on Facebook in November.

“(L)et me be clear that all monies have been paid back in full by me to my attorney! … I owe you, the people, an explanation and an apology for my actions! My frame of mind has not been up to snuff the past couple of months because of what I referred to Tuesday.”

He said he is still grieving the Aug. 12 death of his daughter, Kelly Burns-Mack, who lived in Chicago with her husband and two boys.

“This has been the most trying time I have ever experienced in my life, I need to put this behind me and if there is anything I left out I apologize again for being so naive and stupid! As a grandfather of two boys, going through a significant trauma, my time is better spent with my family helping them, than campaigning for state representative.”

Migas’ long-time friend, Janet Fahey, raised concerns to a branch manager that “money was being improperly removed, diverted and stolen from Mr. Migas’ accounts,” bank attorney Leslie Morant wrote in the report.

Burns sold property with proceeds put into Migas’ account.

“The bank performed an internal review, and found that, in the three months since its deposit on July 23, 2013, the bank has noted an unusual amount of activity in the Migas’ accounts and roughly $80,000 of the $167,000 earned from the sale of the Migas’ property has already been spent by Mr. Burns,” Morant wrote.

There were concerns about “enormous” withdrawals from Migas’ account, and about checks written to a political consultant.

Burns, a personable man who is known to many throughout Allegan County, particularly in the Saugatuck area, startled some friends on his Facebook page by noting Wednesday that "Terry Burns was at the Allegan County Jail."